How to record system audio on a Mac

You want to record a Zoom, Teams or Meet call on your Mac, with both sides of the conversation. You open QuickTime Player, start an audio recording, and afterwards the file has your voice and almost nothing else. This guide explains why, and walks through the three common ways to fix it.

Before you start: tell the people in the call that you are recording. Recording system audio is technically easy; recording people who do not know is not okay, and in many places it is not legal. There is more on this at the end.

Why QuickTime only records your side

QuickTime Player’s audio recording (File > New Audio Recording) records from an input device: the built-in microphone or another microphone you choose from its menu, as Apple’s QuickTime guide describes.

The other people in your call do not come in through an input. Their voices arrive over the network and go out through your speakers or headphones. macOS does not offer that output as an input that QuickTime can pick. If you use speakers, the microphone may pick up a faint, echoing copy of them; with headphones, you get nothing.

On macOS 27 Golden Gate or later there is a built-in way: the Screenshot toolbar (Shift-Command-5) can make a screen recording with Include System Audio turned on in its Options menu, as Apple’s screen recording guide describes. It records a video of the screen, and Apple’s page does not say whether your microphone and the system audio end up in the same file, so check a short test recording before an important call. QuickTime’s audio recording still records a microphone only.

On earlier versions, or if you want audio without a screen video, something has to capture the computer’s audio output. There are three ways to do that.

Option 1: the call app’s own recording

Before installing anything, check whether the call app can record for you. Zoom, for example, can record to your computer, but as a participant you need the host’s permission: hosts can allow recording for everyone or require participants to ask, as Zoom’s support article on computer recording explains.

This is often the simplest and most transparent route, because everyone in the call sees that the meeting is being recorded. It depends on the host’s settings, though, and only works inside that one app.

Option 2: a virtual audio device such as BlackHole (free)

BlackHole is a free virtual audio driver for macOS from Existential Audio. It adds a pretend audio device to your Mac: sound sent into it comes out the other end as an input, which any recording app can then record. It supports Intel and Apple silicon Macs. The developer asks for a donation but does not require one.

On its own, routing sound into BlackHole means you stop hearing it. The standard fix is a Multi-Output Device, which sends sound to your headphones and to BlackHole at the same time.

Step by step

1. Install BlackHole. Download the 2-channel version from the BlackHole website and run the installer, or install it with Homebrew:

brew install blackhole-2ch

Close your audio apps before installing, and restart if the installer asks you to.

2. Create a Multi-Output Device. Open Audio MIDI Setup (in Applications > Utilities). Click the + button at the bottom of the sidebar and choose Create Multi-Output Device, as described in Apple’s Audio MIDI Setup guide.

3. Add your headphones and BlackHole. Select the new device and tick Use next to your speakers or headphones and next to BlackHole 2ch. Set Primary Device to your speakers or headphones. The BlackHole README recommends keeping your real output first in the list and ticking Drift Correction for BlackHole.

4. Send your Mac’s sound to it. In Audio MIDI Setup, right-click the Multi-Output Device and choose Use This Device For Sound Output, or pick it under System Settings > Sound > Output. In the call app’s audio settings, make sure the speaker is set to the Multi-Output Device or to follow the system setting.

5. Record from BlackHole. In QuickTime (File > New Audio Recording) or any other recorder, choose BlackHole 2ch as the input. You now record everything your Mac plays.

6. Switch back afterwards. When you are done, set your sound output back to your normal speakers or headphones.

The catches

• Your own voice is not in it. BlackHole carries what your Mac plays, not your microphone. To record both sides in one file, create an Aggregate Device in Audio MIDI Setup that combines your microphone and BlackHole, and record from that; Apple explains how in Create an Aggregate Device. Or use a recorder that can take two inputs at once.
• The volume keys stop working. macOS does not support volume control for Multi-Output Devices, as the BlackHole README notes. Set the volume in the call app instead.
• You record everything. Notifications, music and other apps’ sounds end up in the recording too.
• Some apps do not play well with Multi-Output Devices. The README lists a few.

It works, and it costs nothing. It is also fiddly enough that many people set it up once, forget to switch back, and wonder why their volume keys do nothing.

Option 3: an app that captures audio itself

The third route is an app that captures system audio for you, without a manual audio setup.

Paid recording tools. Audio Hijack from Rogue Amoeba can record from a specific app, such as Zoom, together with your microphone. It is paid software with a free trial. Its website lists macOS 14.4 or later for the current version.

Apple’s own capture APIs. Recent versions of macOS give apps system-level ways to capture audio output directly, with a permission prompt from the system:

• ScreenCaptureKit, Apple’s framework for capturing screen content and audio. Audio capture is available from macOS 13, and an app can leave its own sounds out of the capture.
• Core Audio taps, which capture the audio a process or group of processes plays. The API they rely on is available from macOS 14.2.

Apps built on these APIs need no extra driver, do not change your sound output, and leave your volume keys alone. macOS asks you to allow them in System Settings > Privacy & Security, under Screen & System Audio Recording (or Screen Recording on older versions), and you can revoke that at any time.

A reminder about consent

Every one of these methods can record people who have no idea they are being recorded. Please do not.

• Say it at the start of the call, and put it in the chat for people who join late.
• Stop if someone objects.
• Check the law where you and the others are, and your workplace’s rules. In many places, recording a conversation you are part of without telling the others is restricted or illegal.
• Keep the recording to yourself unless everyone agreed to more.

Our guide on recording meetings with consent goes into more detail. It is general information, not legal advice.

How Hearkeeper does it

Hearkeeper, a Mac app that is not released yet, takes the third route. It records your microphone and your computer’s audio directly on the Mac using Apple’s own capture APIs, which is why it needs macOS 14.2 or later. There is no driver to install, no Multi-Output Device to set up, and no bot joining the call. It uses screen and audio recording permission only to capture the computer’s audio; it never saves the screen.

It works with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Slack huddles, Webex and FaceTime, and with meetings and lectures in the room. What it records is transcribed on the Mac, with live captions and a more accurate final pass, and turned into a summary, decisions and to-dos by a local language model. See local AI meeting notes for how that works.

Consent is built into the flow rather than left to memory:

• Every recording starts with a consent step. Read the notice aloud, post it in the chat, or both.
• A consent receipt is saved with the recording.
• The recording pill stays on screen. It shows up in screenshots and screen shares, and cannot be hidden, by design.

Join the waitlist

If you would rather not rewire your Mac’s audio every time you record a call, join the waitlist and we will email you when there is a Hearkeeper build for you.